Apartment complexes use ‘PooPrints’ to identify dog owners not picking up after their pets
DENVER – Doggie “PooPrints” are a way apartment complexes are cracking down on piles of pet waste.
Many metro area apartment complexes now require residents to pay to have their dog’s DNA collected and entered into a database. When pet waste is found on the property, the complex could take a sample, send it to a lab and have it tested to determine which dog did the deed and which owner gets fined.
“For most people, pet poo is one of those funny little things that people joke about,” said Sam Johnson, owner of Pet Scoop in Denver. “DNA is an opportunity to be able to identify the ‘poopetrator.'”
Johnson teaches apartment complexes and homeowners associations how to create their community’s database and how to collect stool samples and send them to a lab in Tennessee.
“We can take a sample of the waste, send it to the lab in Knoxville, Tennessee; BioPet Vet Labs. They will match it to the dogs that are on the registry and they will notify us and we can notify the community of exactly which dog it is and who that owner is,” said Johnson. “It’s about $75 to send in a sample.”
He recommends fines of at least $100.
“We’ve even seen some communities that have fines upwards of $250,” said Johnson.
“It’s nice to know that there are some kind of protections where we know that everybody is responsible for doing it and there are consequences if they don’t,” said dog owner Jeremiah Garcia-Bock.
Garcia-Bock lives at an apartment complex just south of Interstate 25 off of Broadway that uses PooPrints.
“We really didn’t mind because we’re the type of people that know that it is our responsibility to pick up after our pet,” said Garcia-Bock. “That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to stop people from having bad behaviors outside of the property.”
Across the street from that apartment complex was a grassy area that had plenty of pet waste not picked up. That area is not controlled by the apartment complex.
“The whole point is to really reduce or, hopefully, eliminate the problem,” said Johnson.
Not picking up pet waste is already against city ordinances.
If you’re caught, the fine in Denver is $150 for the first offense and $250 for the second.
Jefferson County fines at least $30.
Aurora fines a maximum of $1,000 and up to one year in jail.
To view a video of this story as it appeared on ABC Channel 7, Denver, click here
Poo Prints is a paid advertiser of AAOA and can be found here
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